We are sorry, Delta tells AIB over fire incident
- Bureau begins probe
A strong team from Delta Airline today visited the headquarters of Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB) in Lagos to resolve the row between it and the Nigeria’s aviation accident investigative body.
The carrier also apologised to the agency over the airline’s failure to notify the government agency of the emergency landing involving its Airbus 330-200 aircraft on Tuesday night.
Atlanta bound Delta Flight 55, which departed Lagos Tuesday night returned several minutes later to Murtala Muhammed International Airport following an issue with one of the Airbus 330-200’s two engines.
Leading a team of the airline officials including the technical crew of the flight and the airlines Lagos Airport station Manager to the Ikeja head office of the Bureau around 5pm local time, Miss Shannon Masters, Manager, Air Safety Investigation expressed the airline’s regret for the oversight, stressing that it was not intentional.
Masters said: “We sincerely apologise for the error and we promise to cooperate with AIB in the investigation of this occurrence.”
The Commissioner/CEO of AIB, Akin Olateru, an aircraft engineer, while accepting Delta’s apology said AIB had already commenced investigation into the serious incident and welcome the airline’s cooperation.
“We look forward to receiving cooperation from Delta Airlines as we work to determine the cause of this serious incident in the interest of safety.“
A statement by AIB spokesman, Mr. Tunji Oketunbi stated that the Nigerian accident investigation body had frowned at the American carrier’s failure to notify it of the serious incident involving its aircraft in line with Nigerian air safety regulations and international practice.
The airline was believed to have notified the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) of the occurrence immediately in line with the US laws.
Nigeria, as the state of occurrence under the International Civil Aviation organisation (ICAO) Annex 13 is responsible for investigating any aircraft occurrences within her airspace.
The State of registry of the aircraft and the airline may serve as observers.
The action of the American based carrier forced Olateru to bar engineers from going near Delta Air’s aircraft.
He equally directed that the crew of the aborted flight should not leave the country until they are interviewed to know exactly what happened to the air- plane with registration N858NW.
He said when situations like that occurred, the accident investigative body normally takes possession of the aircraft and ensures nobody goes near it.
Olateru said: “The aircraft is under safety investigation. That is what is required by law until they make a formal report. I was made to understand they have appointed two investigators to work with us and they should be arriving this afternoon (yesterday).”
It would be recalled that at about 21.52UTC on Tuesday, Delta Airline Flight DL 55, an A330-200, that departed Muritala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos with 219 passengers on board made an emergency landing at 21.59p.m. Local time after the left engine of the aircraft caught fire mid-air in-flight.
The pilot of the aircraft, who noticed that the left engine had caught fire, immediately contacted the control tower at the Lagos airport to prepare for emergency landing.
Emergency aviation officials were immediately contacted and fire fighters placed on standby.
After landing successfully, all the passengers aboard were quickly evacuated via the emergency sliding door within a few minutes.
Also, the passengers were taken to a hotel after the flight was cancelled and rescheduled for a date yet-to-be specified and communicated.
Although no deaths were recorded, five passengers were injured during the evacuation and were said to have been taken to Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja, Air Force Base Clinic and Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) Medical Centre for speedy medical attention.
